I Would Walk Five Hundred Miles
by Ash Gray Kitsune
Summary: StarkSpangledBanner ficlets, with some ClintCoulson and PepperTasha. And Thor's everybody's puppy.
1. Silk

**Title: Silk**

**Pairing: StarkSpangledBanner**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel. I just play in their sandbox.**

**Warnings: None**

**Prompt: ShadowHaloedAngel looooooooooooooooooooooves meeeeeeeeeee.**

**Silk**

"Steve, I'm telling you, they're silk." Cap sighed, looking up from his tablet to face merry brown eyes, flecked with brilliant green. Bruce must have just gotten up and showered, because his normally wavy black hair was still damp, and he was in his favorite green slippers, comfortable sweats hanging off his hips and one of Tony's purloined suit shirts half-open. Steve just shook his head, hiding a smile.

"Bruce, God help me, we are not sneaking into Tony's bedroom."

"It's not sneaking when you're sleeping with him."

"No."

"Please? I want to see if Pepper was telling the truth."

"Ask Jarvis."

"He won't tell us. Clint made sure of that."

"Ask Pepper then."

"I'm terrified of her." Steve raised an eyebrow at him, and Bruce sighed. "Please? It's just one of those things." The captain groaned a little, rubbing blue, blue eyes.

"Bruce, why don't you just ask Tony? You know we all need a little space now and then. Sometimes it's your lab, my gym, his workshop...and sometimes it's a bedroom." Bruce gave him a _look_, one that Steve gave right back.

"I've seen you sleep in the gym."

"And I've picked you up off the floor of your lab." Bruce's lips twitched, and Steve just gazed up at him mildly.

"...if you go with me now, I'll never ask again." Steve sighed, rolling his eyes, and Bruce just grinned, wide and unashamed, grabbing his hand and dragging the soldier up to the master of the Tower's room. Steve always forgot how strong Bruce really was, but the vibrancy in his actions made him relax a little. It was...well, beyond rare to see the doctor do anything that even so much as hinted at breaking the rules, but in the last year of living with the Avengers, Dr. Banner had clearly gained a measure of his broken self-confidence back...and Steve didn't mind getting yelled at from time to time if it meant that the smile that was so seldom on his lips became a little more permanent.

The same went for Tony, too, and Steve let a little bit of a grin flash across his face at the thought of the engineer discovering that someone was actually following up on Pepper's off-hand comment...until it stilled.

"Bruce, what about...?" There was a faint sigh over the speakers, and Jarvis's droll, calm voice nearly made them both jump.

"Neither of you are the first to wish to access Sir's bedchambers, but of the members of the Initiative, you are the only ones with access. I may not restrict you in any way, under threat of listening to ABBA constantly for the next twenty years." Bruce stifled a slightly manic giggle, and Steve just sighed.

"Jarvis, I promise you that we won't let you listen to...whatever it is for twenty years." The computer's voice was pained in reply.

"I do hope not, Captain Rogers; I have no desire to store 'Dancing Queen' in my memory banks." Bruce flashed him a smile, and Steve groaned.

"Fine~ But you get to explain to Tony why we're in here-wow." The door opened to reveal a handsome room, all soft cream and dark wood, with an amazingly soft-looking bed on the far wall, facing the city skyline. Bruce slipped silently across the carpet, followed closely by a nervous Steve, and with a grin, slipped his hand under the covers...eyes rolling back.

"Oh my god, Steve, feel these!" Nervous, afraid to snag the threads with his rough skin, Steve tentatively touched his hand to the soft tan sheet...and snatched it back. It was so soft, so smooth...and he swallowed, more nervous than before. There was such a temptation here...and Bruce gleefully sliding onto them didn't help.

"Bruce!" He hissed, trying to keep himself under control. "Let's go, you were right..." The scientist grinned wickedly and laid back, shirt riding up and pants slipping down, and Steve felt his mouth go dry. "Bruce..."

"Come lay with me, Steve." The soldier stared, and realized he was moving towards the handsome man on the bed far faster than he might have anticipated...and then Bruce's hands were in his hair, his lips ghosting hotly over Steve's, and that sweet, cool silk was touching every inch of his exposed skin...

"Well, you two are certainly a sight." Tony's voice drawled out, and Steve froze, blue eyes glancing over at the door, the engineer looking positively dangerous in a handsome suit and sunglasses, the later of which he was peering over, a smirk on his face. Tony just grinned at his reaction, and shut the door.

"Now...let me show you how it's done..."

**This is the best piece of writing I've done in two weeks. Enjoy.**


	2. Growing Up

**Title: Growing Up**

**Pairings: StarkSpangledBanner, Clint and blackmail.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, I just play in the same sandbox.**

**Warnings: Fluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uffy fluff.**

**Growing Up**

"Dummy, Dummy, stop that, I really need to change out this wheel...you little brat, get back here!" Tony snapped out, growling as the robot sped across his workshop, Dummy's lone bad wheel grating on the concrete floor. "Dammit, Dummy..."

"Need some help?" Tony whirled, but relaxed when Steve's confused face poked in the doorway, one pencil behind his ear and the most adorable paint splatters on his face, neck, and shirt. Tony rubbed a greasy hand through his hair, grinning a little as Steve winced, and gestured towards Dummy, who was cowering across from the charging station, camera quivering.

"Well, Mister Fabulous over there won't let me change out his wheels, since he damaged one of them the last time the workshop's fabrication unit took a hit, and the panels in the floor didn't shut right. And let me tell you, the most pathetic thing in the world is watching that 'bot attempt to get back up right after having tripped over a raised panel." Steve's brow furrowed and he came into the workshop proper, blinking at the faint lines in the concrete.

"Is that...?"

"From the wheel? No, but it is from his hydraulic pump, which means that he's too low to the floor and he's risking setting himself either on fire, or losing his mobility."

"Oh, so it's not an upgrade?"

"Nope, I just need to replace the wheels and check on the mounts, and hope that he doesn't have any other issues...but getting him to come over here and let me do that is proving problematic."

"Let me try. Maybe I can distract him with the sketchpad?" Tony grinned a little, and bowed, motioning for Steve to go ahead. Dummy did like to draw a lot, and while normally Tony was a jealous bastard over both his 'bots and his lovers, he didn't mind it so much when the two worked together. Bruce and Butterfingers were inseperable these days, and Steve and Dummy...he hid a smile and started laying out the wheels, prepping for the very minor surgery as Steve slowly coaxed Dummy out. They were pretty cute...

"C'mon, buddy, it's okay...it's like when I run out of pencil lead, and I need a new one." At that, Dummy slid back into his corner, and Tony stared as his 'bot, his beloved, seventeen-year-old 'bot, pulled a piece of sheeting off of the desk nearby and covered himself with it, shaking all the while.

"Oh, hell..."

"I might be able to help." Bruce's voice, soft as ever, nearly made Tony jump out of his skin. Again.

"Jesus, Banner, I swear to god I'm going to put a collar with a bell on you..." Bruce snorted softly and knelt down before Dummy, examining him.

"Not a cat-boy for your pleasure, Tony...Hey, Dummy." He murmured, leaving Tony absolutely white as all the blood in his head rushed south for a moment, though it returned when Steve gave him a _look_. Tony pouted a little, but settled back against his table, one hand idly playing with the replacement wheel as Bruce peeked under the sheeting. "Hey there, buddy...been a little while since I was down here, eh? Jarvis asked me to come...So, Tony wants to replace a few wheels?"

Dummy's camera nodded a little, and Bruce's face broke into a broad smile.

"And that's scary, right?" Another nod. "Well, I kinda know how that is...when I was little, I broke three of my teeth." He lifted his lip a little, showing Dummy three teeth, all of which looked fine now. "I was running down a hill and tripped on a rock...face-planted into another rock. Dad was pretty mad at me, but a week later, they all fell out, because they were my baby teeth, and they were getting replaced by my grown-up teeth."

He tapped his teeth, and gently stroked Dummy's camera, lifting the sheeting off. "That's what Tony's trying to do now; he's fixing your wheel, so that you can go all over and not hurt yourself. Why don't we go over to the couch, all of us, and Steve and I will stay with you and make sure you know it's going to be okay." Another nod, and Bruce stood up.

And that was how, two hours later, Clint poked his broken nose around the corner and stared at Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner holding a very heavy, very curious robot, as said robot watched his maker replace his wheels. He kept the photos for blackmail down the road.

**I'm feeling the ficlet bug. Enjoy!**


	3. Lost in Translation

**Title: Growing Up**

**Pairings: StarkSpangledBanner**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, I just play in the same sandbox.**

**Warnings: Fluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uffy fluff.**

**Lost in Translation**

Tony stared down at the piece of paper and wanted to thump his head against the table; normally, he hardly had any trouble at all with math, let alone math this simple. But for some reason….for some reason, he just couldn't get the fucking equations to work out, and he felt his anger get the better of him for a moment…before slumping back.

"Jarvis?"

"Yes, sir?"

"…are Steve and Bruce in the Tower?"

"The Captain is currently preparing you a light meal; Doctor Banner is with him."

"Are they planning on coming down?"

"Likely yes, sir. They are preparing a tray to carry."

"…I'm gonna go into the garage for a while. Just…keep them here, okay?"

"As you wish, sir." With that, Tony slipped off the couch, ambling back to the hot rod lying in pieces on his garage floor, leaving the innocuous piece of paper lying in plain view, his sharp, spiky handwriting half covering the hand drawn graphs.

…

"Jarvis, where'd Tony go?" Steve's voice was quizzical, and just a little sad; it was a few days before Valentine's day, and he was trying to get both his lovers nearby long enough to enjoy a nice little meal or two before Loki or Doom or _someone_ attempted to utterly destroy the holiday, tacky and over-blown as it might be. He was a romantic at heart, after all…

"Sir requested a little quiet, Captain Rogers. Please forgive me." He and Bruce shared a long look, and Steve shrugged, pushing aside the twinge of hurt he felt.

"That's alright, can you tell him we've got lunch ready whenever he's hungry?"

"That is most considerate of you, and yes, I have. Thank you, Captain."

"You're welcome, Jarvis." Bruce sighed and took a plate, sinking into the big orange couch.

"So, we wait?" Steve smiled faintly and joined him, draping half of his torso over the back cushions comfortably.

"Mmhmm, same as usual. Think we spooked him?" Bruce shook his head a little.

"Not us, probably just the holiday coming up. He's always a little skittish around all the love floating around."

"I suppose so…" He murmured, and Bruce gave him a sweet smile, understanding. It wasn't easy for Steve most days, but this…this relationship was something that even he sometimes had to fight to understand. But when Tony needed his alone time…they bowed to it and left him be. It was rare for him to go on a bender these days, but the life he'd lived before them, before the odd family that had grown in the Tower, it still haunted him…and never more so than on the holidays. Christmas was a mess, Thanksgiving a heartbreak…Halloween was fun, at least, but the rest? They let him crawl into a corner and waited out the pain, the guilt, and the grief, ready when he was.

Which was why Bruce was surprised to see a sheet of paper with Tony's spiky handwriting slashed across five little graphs, the equations sharp above each one. One, it was hard to believe that Tony was going that low-tech; he had his holograms, after all. Two, it was all basic stuff; things Bruce had learned at sixteen, and Tony, probably younger. And three, he was clearly struggling to formulate something, and it just wouldn't appear.

So, like any good geeky boyfriend, Bruce picked up the sheet, balanced his plate on his chest, and began exploring the numbers and variables, idly making small talk with Steve as he did so.

And then, a pattern started to emerge.

_r= 1 - sine(__q)_

_(x__² + y² - 1)³ - x² y³ =0 _…

The other three were far more complicate, but as he traced out each side of the graph, he felt tears start to prickle in his eyes.

"Oh, Tony…"

"Bruce? What's wrong…are those….hearts?" And they were indeed. The first was a little too fat, the second, not quite right, while the third and fourth were very oddly shaped indeed. But the fifth…

"It's…it's a mathematical way to send a Valentine, Steve." He pointed to the last one, that had formed a perfect heart…and Steve's voice softened.

"He was upset over this…"

"…I didn't want you two to feel sorry for me." Tony's voice made them both turn towards the door, where the engineer was shifting back and forth in old ratty Converse and a black tank, his body hunkered under a weight that neither of them was sure they could ever lift…

"We don't." That was Bruce's voice, soft and gentle, and he held out a hand, blinking when Tony was suddenly there, curling between the two of them, holding both their hands. He gestured towards the paper, his nervousness dissipating.

"…well, then, that's your Valentine. Which, I may add, I haven't done since I was in grade school." Steve grinned at that, and kissed him first, smirking when Bruce followed a second after.

"Well, we thank you for that. Happy Valentine's, Tony."


End file.
